Choices That Were Made
by Four Leafed Fortune
Summary: *Sequel to Disastrous Chance or Fate?* After three years Autumn and Gray meet again, but the choices they made during those years that they haven't seen each other threaten their relationship and their future.
1. Meeting Again

**Hey! I'm finally back with a sequel! **

**I meant to put this up sooner while people still cared about Disastrous Chance or Fate, but I lost motivation.**

**But it's here now!**

**Disclaimer: Just like last month and the own before that I still don't own Pokémon.**

Chapter One: Meeting Again

A flame blast hit a nimble pink creature in the side. The pink creature jumped back and fired a psybeam towards its attacker, a houndoom.

The houndoom took the attack full force and started wobbling on his legs. The pink creature didn't even attempt to finish it off, but just dodged the numerous flame blasts being sent her way.

The houndoom eventually cornered the pink creature against the mossy walls of the mystery dungeon.

The houndoom glared into the pesky pink creature's lavender eyes expecting to see fear or at least anger, but only saw satisfaction. It was then the houndoom sensed something was very wrong. As he was about to attempt to flee, a faint attack hit the pitiable Pokémon from behind.

"Another victory for Team Chance!" The mystery Pokémon yelled as the pink creature picked up a sun stone that the pair had been hired to retrieve from what their client had called "a conniving houndoom who attacks innocent Pokémon" that morning.

"Great job Autumn! Through I did amazingly too," the strange grass-type said sticking his oddly long nose into the air proudly.

The espeon rolled her eyes at her companion's nonsense. Earlier he had been hiding in a corner because he was too scared to go up against a fire-type. Now he was bragging.

"Shut up Acorn, and let's go collect our reward." Autumn laughed turning to grab their exploration badge that marked Team Chance as an official exploration team.

"Can you stop calling me that. It's been a year since I evolved from a seedot into a nuzleaf," Charlie whined.

Autumn smiled at her companion's antics. One year since Charlie had evolved. Three years since she formed Team Chance with him. Three years since she had last seen Gray, an absol that had turned himself in to the Pokémon police.

The normally energetic espeon was hit by a wave of nostalgia. All these years later and she still caught herself thinking about him.

Autumn shook her head clearing her head. After all these years the chances of finding him was slim. She had checked the records of every prison in the area but couldn't find even one absol.

Line Break _

Charlie watched as his partner happily accepted the reward from their client, a charizard, but he couldn't help noticing that Autumn seemed a bit . . . sad.

She didn't look it. She was chatting happily with their client about ways not to get mugged in dungeons and the charizard seemed fascinated by Autumn's every word, but Charlie knew better.

They had trained together in the same guild for one year 4 months and two hours before they had graduated. Ever since they had been making a name for Team Chance. This had caused Charlie to know his partner's moods very well especially when she was thinking about Gray.

Just thinking about that thieving absol caused Charlie to tremble in rage. Not fear. Rage.

Charlie had decided long ago that that he would attack Gray the next time the grass-type saw him. Well, technically he would be rooting for Autumn as she attacked him from a safe distance, but that was pretty much like attacking the absol himself. Right?

"Charlie, you're trembling. Did something scare you?" Autumn asked concerned.

Charlie looked up to realize that while he had been thinking about Gray that their client had left.

"No, this is rage. Not fear," Charlie insisted.

Autumn just shrugged and made her way out of the guild, where they always met their clients, towards her home.

Charlie jumped after her trying to catch up.

Eventually Charlie ended up following Autumn to her home trying to keep her company. After they had moved closer to the guild for convince Autumn had bought a house using money she had gotten from the stashes in Gray's old home, the Ice Fortress. Charlie had just started roughing it in the woods refusing to let Autumn buy him a house using stolen money.

As they got closer and closer to her home Charlie couldn't help being amazed. Her home was a beautiful white ash house that closely resembled how Charlie had heard humans built their houses across the ocean.

As Autumn pushed through the lavender curtains that acted as a door Autumn turned to Charlie smiling. "I'm fine. Go home," Autumn said.

Charlie nodded sadly and ran to the tree that he used as his house wishing that Autumn would trust him a bit more.

Line Break =)

Autumn ran down the dirt pack the impact of her feet on the ground causing rocks to fly up behind her. Charlie struggled to keep up with the Sun Pokémon, but their dash to the guild just proved that a Pokémon with four legs ran a lot faster than a Pokémon with two legs.

As Autumn scrambled up the brown steps to the entrance of the guild she fell down panting. "Ha! I told you I was faster," Autumn exclaimed before she was overcome by a desperate need for air.

"You. . . cheated!" Charlie yelled in between gasps for air.

"Did . . . not!" Autumn yelled back.

"Ahem. Now that you two are done with your trivial arguments, will you start making the guild money again?" the taskmaster of the guild asked. Autumn turned to glare at the swellow. Autumn had viscously argued with the fact that they had to give 78% of all profits they made from jobs for at least four years to pay for the guild's training.

Autumn had never gotten over the fact that she had lost the argument just like the Swallow Pokémon had never forgiven her for starting the fight in the first place.

The taskmaster just glared back at Autumn until Charlie was forced to interrupte their glaring match.

"We will! You know, get to work right now in fact! Well, not right now, because we need to pick a job, but soon!" Charlie declared.

The swellow turned to Autumn and Charlie. "I have a job for each of you, since you were both so late." the Swallow Pokémon started sending a glare Autumn's way when the espeon looked like she was about to start protesting.

"Charlie I need you to be gatekeeper. Stand behind the gate and see if the Pokémon requesting to enter is a friend or foe. Autumn since you are simply horrid at being gatekeeper there was a request for perfect apples. Go to the center of Apple Woods and get some perfect apples." the taskmaster declared.

"What are you waiting for? Get to work!" the Swallow Pokémon yelled fluttering her dark brown wings. her outburst cause Charlie to quickly run to his post behind the wooden gate and Autumn to lazily stroll in the direction of Apple Woods earning herself another glare from the swellow.

Line Break (-.-)ZZZZzzzz

As Autumn stormed down the path to Apple Woods all other passing Pokémon gave the mumbling espeon a _very_ wide berth.

"Stupid swellow. Stupid perfect apples. Stupid Apple Woods." Autumn mumbled stomping down the path.

When it seemed like the mumbling had all but stopped, "STUPID SWELLOW!" Autumn screamed causing all nearby Pokémon to jump at least a foot in the air.

This lasted all the way up to Apple Woods. Autumn stormed inside not quite sure why she was so angry. As Autumn peacefully walked through the first floor of Apple Woods her mumbling and screaming scaring away any potentially violent Pokémon she thought over why she was really so upset.

The answer was very expected. Gray.

The absol had once said he loved perfect apples, but never had time to go to Apple Woods himself. And when thoughts of gray came to her she found herself reminiscing on all the memories she had of him.

She thought of how he mugged Charlie and stole the nuzleaf's old coin. She thought of how he saved her from a monster house. She remembered giving him her blue scarf. The thing that caused her heart to cry out was the memories of finding the note he left her. He should have said goodbye in person!

Autumn managed to make it without a single battle all the way up to the fourth floor. As Autumn delicately stepped around beautiful pink flowers growing along the rich dirt of the dungeon floor a poison powder hit her.

Autumn flinched as she felt the poison make its way into her system and started send signals of pain through her body.

Autumn used tackle on the butterfree knocking it out instantly, but her victory was short lived as a wave of pain from the poison hit her.

Stumbling around the dungeons using tackle and psybeam on all the budew, oddish and caterpies that crossed her path.

Other than that Autumn had no difficulties getting to the center of the dungeon. Which was part of the reasons while Autumn was furious with the guild's taskmaster. Mari had always enjoyed a challenge and there that Swallow Pokémon was sending Autumn to a dungeon _Charlie_ would have no trouble getting through.

Autumn even saw Pokémon just enjoys a nice stroll through the forest while foraging for apples.

Autumn eventually gave up on her anger and just started enjoying a day with extremely limited fighting. It had been months since she had any like this. Autumn ate apples and felt their juices cause her fur to become sticky, she talked with passing Pokémon, and she did her best to just relax.

When she finally reached the center of Apple Woods and see saw the massive perfect apple tree in the middle of the grassy clearing she skipped happily to it until she noticed there was already a Pokémon there.

Autumn started to approach to ask if it needed help getting the perfect apples down when the Pokémon jumped up and night slashed four perfect apples down. They fell to the ground with a slight thud as they landed on the soft green grass at the base of the perfect apple tree.

The Pokémon was covered in the whitest fur Autumn had ever seen. The only areas that weren't white were a dark gray. His razor ship claws on his four paws, a large horn that came from the right side of his face, his tail and most of his face were all a steel gray.

But his eyes were the most beautiful red that reminded Mari of the perfect apples at the Pokémon's feet.

Another detail that captured Autumn's attention was a sky blue scarf tied around its neck.

"Gray!" Autumn shouted. She ran forward about to hug the absol, before she remembered he was supposed to be in jail. Not in the Apple Woods.

Autumn skidded to a halt. "How could you! You never even said goodbye! Now you're not even in jail!" Mari shouted causing the starlys resting in the trees to fly away.

Autumn began to power up a psybeam when Gray attempted to explain himself. "I did turn myself in! Because of that I was sent to help rebuild villages that were destroyed in natural disasters for two and a half years. Now I'm kind of on probation. I have to use my abilities as an absol to warn villages where natural disasters are about to happen," Gray explained desperately.

"Why didn't you tell me. I though you cared about me," Autumn whispered.

"I thought it would be best if I didn't see you until I could stay. Right now I have to travel around a lot." Gray explained weakly sounding regretful.

Autumn felt tears burning in the back of her eyes. Autumn knew Gray was lieing. There was another reason he didn't trust her enough to tell her about. As her vision started to blur Autumn jumped forward and used psybeam.

Gray jumped back and used perish song on an instinct. As the haunting music fell around Autumn Gray's eyes widened in guilt. "I'm sorr-" Gray began to say before Autumn tackled him.

Autumn tried psybeam two more times until Gray's perish song finally took effect and blackness rushed into her vision her burst of anger fading.

Line break

Autumn woke up with tears falling down her face as the memories of seeing Gray came back to her.

As she lifted herself up she turned to look at the sky where the sun was falling lower and lower paining pinks, purples and oranges across the horizon.

As Autumn began to walk back to the guild to tell the arrogant swellow she couldn't get the perfect apples. As she walked she found herself nearly stepping on an apple. She looked down and saw four perfect apples in a pile next to her.

Autumn smiled. She knew where they had came from. As she gathered them up and started to walk to the guild she looked around half expecting to see Gray in the distance, but she never did.

**AN: That's the first chapter of the sequel.**

**Review if you still care about Autumn and Gray's story!**


	2. Badly Made Plans

**AN: Sorry, I meant to finish this chapter sooner, but it didn't work out the way I planned.**

**Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: If you think I own Pokémon there is something wrong, but in case you need me to clear the matter up I still don't own Pokémon.**

**Chapter 2: Badly Made Plans**

Charlie watched as Autumn paced back and forth in front of the guild. After she gave the perfect apples to the taskmaster she seemed to be consumed by some thought that Charlie couldn't even guess at.

All he knew was that the espeon had been pacing for at least an hour, and she seemed oddly focused.

Charlie started to blink sleep away. Watching Autumn walk around wasn't the most interesting thing in the world. he should just take a nap while she was sistracted

"Charlie!" Autumn yelled jumping in front of the tired nuzleaf with her lavender eyes opened wide.

"What?" Charlie yelped falling onto his back. The Sun Pokémon quickly helped her partner up before she continued.

"I found Gray!" Autumn exclaimed not noticing the stricken expression that appeared on Charlie's face. "And I know where he is right now!" the Sun Pokémon squealed before running down a dirt road.

Charlie watched horrified. Autumn couldn't be happy that absol was back, but she was smiling a lot. No, she was probably happy about, uh, the trip to Apple Woods. Autumn probably enjoyed having an easy job for once. She couldn't be happy about seeing the Pokémon that left without even saying goodbye to her. Charlie found faint peace in that thought.

Autumn paused only when she was almost completely out of view to turn back to Charlie. "I need your help!" Autumn yelled back to Charlie her lavender eyes sparking.

Yeah, the trip to Apple Woods also make her eyes sparkle. That makes sense, Charlie thought miserably before dragging himself after Autumn.

Line Break

"What is the plan exactly?" Charlie whispered looking around the mystery dungeon Autumn had led him into. It was dank with odd holes placed oddly in the stone walls. The creepiest part was that Charlie hadn't see a single Pokémon in the seven floors that had traveled.

Usually, Charlie would be jumping up and down in joy because of that, but this dungeon let off an aura that caused Charlie's leaves to bristle with fear.

"This is perfect!" Autumn exclaimed as she spotted a flicker of gray in the distance that marked a staircase.

Autumn ran towards it with Charlie stumbling after her trying in his best to keep up. Autumn easily reached the stair case and skipped up its many steps as Charlie hesitated for a moment.

Fear gripped his heart in its icy grip as he thought of the multiple ways this little adventure could work out. Sure, he trusted Autumn, but it seemed like just the mention of Gray would cause her to do some of the stupidest things.

Like three years ago when she faced down a glalie who rejoiced in freezing his victims alive. Or when she fought a respected exploration team.

Charlie sighed. He always knew that Autumn would do something that could possibly get both of them in trouble, and he had a nasty feeling this was it.

But Charlie owed Autumn. When she asked her to create Team Chance with her she had opened a door to possibilities in his life that he hadn't even known existed. The fearful Pokémon finally made his decision and ran after his teammate.

As Charlie reached the final floor of the dungeon he was struck with a feeling that he should have stayed back downstairs.

"Please tell me this wasn't part of your plan?" Charlie gasped looking ahead.

"No," Autumn muttered trembling slightly.

The dome they were in had huge stone walls that seemed to climb high into the sky and touch the darkening clouds above them.

The rest of the area was smooth and a light gray. There wasn't even a pebble out of place. That made the huge dragon-type in the center of the final floor even more terrifying somehow.

It had three blue heads that were all glaring at Autumn and Charlie with three black wings on each side of the creature. Autumn recognized its characteristics from the amount of time she spent listening to other exploration teams talk about their accomplishments and failures.

A hydreigon. Otherwise known as the Brutal Pokémon. This definitely wasn't in her plan. She had expected all the Pokémon to have left.

The Pokémon looked up to the dark sky and roared. Charlie whimpered and began moving back to the stairs.

"Stop! it will only attack if you move-" But Autumn was cut off by the hydreigon launching forward like a comet and hitting Charlie directly.

The much smaller Pokémon started to wobble slightly before collapsing just before the stairs.

Autumn was about to groan before the all three of the creature's heads turned to the Sun Pokémon and hissed.

Autumn gulped her psychic abilities telling her that the Brutal Pokémon was about to use dragon rush. The espeon barely managed to jump to the side in time even with her psychic powers helping her.

Autumn faced the hydreigon with burning eyes and used psybeam. The beam hit the bigger Pokémon head on, but all the Brutal Pokémon did was shake its three heads then fire a dragon pulse at the psychic type. Autumn tried to move out of the way, but this time she was too slow. While the blast barely ht her she could still feel a massive amount of pain rip through her right side.

After that the fight became more like a chase. The hydreigon would attempt to hit Autumn while she ran away from it and fired the a psybeam at it occasionally.

After a while Autumn's legs began to buckle under her a little. A bit longer and they started to burn. The Sun Pokémon knew she couldn't keep it up much longer, and the Brutal Pokémon was doing its best to try to corner her.

Luckily, the fact that the final floor was a circle which had not corners was surprisingly helpful.

When Autumn was breathing hard and her body felt like a sack of lead she was finally was forced to stop.

The hydreigon smirked at the sight of its opponent tired and looking like she was about to faint any second.

It started to use dragon rush, but before it could reach the smaller Pokémon Autumn had tackled the hydreigon's right front leg disrupting the unprepared Pokémon's balance.

The hydreigon's momentum continued to carry it forward until it was stopped by the wall. The once flawless stone wall now had a large hole with cracks spreading from it like a spider web.

The impact that the hydriegon had with the wall gave Autumn just enough time to make a dash for the staircase.

The Brutal Pokémon looked towards the fleeing espeon and shook the rubble off of itself.

Before the hydriegon could try another move a night slash hit it from behind. Autumn heard the strangled cry of the Brutal Pokemon and paused.

Then Autumn smiling and didn't even bother to turn around to confirm her suspicion before she used helping hand on Gray.

The absol used psycho cut which Autumn rapidly followed with her psybeam.

The two Pokémon took the time in between their attacks and the hydriegon's to jump closer to each other.

The hydreigon roared again then used dragonbreath. While it hit the Disaster Pokémon and caused Gray some damage the absol quickly recovered from the blow.

Gray used night slash again which focused the hydreigon's attention solely on Gray.

That choice proved to be unwise as Autumn used the opportunity to use last resort while the Brutal Pokémon was focused on Gray.

The hydreigon didn't even have a chance to defend itself. The moment last resort hit it a loud boom echoed around the hot dome signaling that Autumn and Gray and by some degree Charlie had won.

"That's a new move." Gray commented staring at the knocked out hydreigon.

"Yeah, you can't even guess how hard it was to learn." Autumn laughed turning to Gray with a smile.

"I'm sorry," Gray confessed staring into Autumn's lavender eyes.

"I gave up being angry at you awhile ago," Autumn muttered embarrassed.

"I was wondering-" Gray began before a loud groan filled the large dome.

Autumn ran over to her forgotten comrade while Gray followed closely behind.

The nuzleaf immediately jumped up despite his injuries and turned towards Gray. Charlie opened his mouth to yell at Gray, but the absol's glare caused the nuzleaf's mouth to jump open and close uselessly.

"Are you okay? Can you talk?" Autumn asked. Her lavender eyes bright with concern. She had never of a Pokémon losing their ability to speak after being knocked out, but Charlie had always been unlucky.

Charlie shook his head his eyes wide with fear as he gazed at the Disaster Pokémon.

"What's wrong?" Autumn insisted.

Charlie raised his arm up and pointed at Gray. The Disaster Pokémon let out a slight growl intimidating the frightened nuzleaf to the point where he almost fainter again.

"It's okay. It's just Gray." Autumn said trying to comfort her teammate.

"Who's he?" Gray interrupted still glaring down at the nuzleaf who had begun trembling.

"It's Charlie. He evolved into a nuzleaf," Autumn declared cheerfully causing Charlie to stick his ridiculously long nose into the air proudly.

"That explains the nose," Gray said causing the nuzleaf to attempt to glare back at the absol. "Who's Charlie again?" Gray asked.

Autumn rolled her eyes. "The one you stole the rare coin from." Gray just stared at her blankly.

"The acorn," Autumn said causing Charlie to glare at her.

"Oh," Gray muttered.

"We formed Team Chance together!" Autumn declared happily turning back to smile at Charlie.

Gray watched the two of them exchanged smiles at each other. "Oh," he muttered again.

"How did you know Gray was going to be here?" Charlie asked finally finding his voice.

"Because I knew that Gray was warning Pokémon about natural disasters, so I tried to sense natural disasters that were about to happen by reading the air currents. I got lucky because when volcanoes are about to erupt they send out a specific air-" Autumn explained before Charlie heard a specific phrase.

"Volcanoes about to EXPLODE!" Charlie yelled beginning to panic. he jumped up and began running around aimlessly.

"Yeah, this volcano was thought to be dormant, but I saw it was about to explode. I told all the Pokémon to leave, and stayed behind to see if there was anyone I missed. Why do you think you didn't see any Pokémon beside the hydreigon around?" Gray said.

"Wait! There is a volcano about to explode, and you're acting like it's nothing! I think you caused it!" Charlie screamed his voice raising several octaves.

"I can't cause natural disasters. Only see them coming. And I'm calm because this has become pretty routine by now," Gray explained looking annoyed.

"What about you, Autumn? You're sane!" Charlie cried out tears pooling in his eyes.

"I can sense we have about four hours to get away, so I'm not worried. Besides I'm sure they're already getting Pokémon to either stop, or at least weaken the volcano," Autumn said trying to gave Charlie some peace of mind.

"Only four hours!" Charlie yelled and ran down the stairs.

"He does realize he's taking the long way?" Gray asked staring at the fleeing nuzleaf.

"Not likely," Autumn sighed before running after her panic driven teammate.

"Wonderful," Gray muttered before running after Autumn.

Line Break

After following the screaming Charlie all around the mystery dungeon until they managed to find the exit, and then continuing to chase after the still panicking Charlie in the streets caused both Autumn and Gray to be grateful when Charlie finally became too tired to run anymore.

"Charlie! It's okay!" Autumn reassured her friend.

Charlie eventually stopped panicking and turned to Gray with rage in his eyes.

"It's your fault! Grass and volcanoes don't mix! Why didn't you think of that sooner?" Charlie yelled at Gray.

"Hey! How is it my fault! I didn't lure you to the volcano!" Gray shouted back at Charlie.

The nuzleaf refused to listen to reason and just started to power up his explosion.

Gray saw what was about to happen, and pulled Autumn away from Charlie as he used explosion.

They both stared at Charlie's unconscious body before Gray started to speak. "I want to ask you if I could join Team Chance."

"Why?" Autumn asked.

"I go to a lot of different areas so I could start doing jobs in far off places you can't get to easily. And for me being part of an exploration team would actually help me get supplies and move around faster. What do you think?"

"I think it's a great idea," Autumn declared. She would be happy to see Gray again, and a part of Autumn wanted to know the real reason Gray didn't try to find her earlier.

"Great, but how are you going to tell what's his name?" Gray asked pointing to Charlie.

"His name is Charlie," Autumn said glaring slightly at the absol. "And I don't think he despises you as much as it seems right now." Autumn declared.

Line Break

**AN: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. **

**And I only have one more thing to do before I can officially end this chapter. REVIEW! Okay, that's it.**


	3. Another Adventure

**AN: Happy 12/12/12!**

**I wasn't planning on updating today, so this chapter isn't as long as I usually make them, but I don't know when I will have another chance to work on this story.**

**By the way did you know that this will be the last time for nearly a century that the day, month and year will all be the same?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. If you don't believe me check the disclaimers in the other chapter as well.**

**Chapter Three: Another Adventure**

Charlie wasn't happy.

Due to a combination of stress, shock, Gray and fear he hadn't woken up for four whole days.

When he finally did woke up he on the wooden floor in Autumn's house . After he briefly wondered why exactly he was on the floor and not on the spare bed he made the poor decision of looking up. the already unhappy Charlie saw his partner and that horrible absol smiling at each other.

This caused a burst of screaming and a small amount of crying in the awakened nuzleaf which caused the horrible absol to hit Charlie with a night slash.

After that Autumn hit Gray she explained to the nuzleaf about how Gray had carried him all the way to her house, and, oh, she asked him to join the team! You think she would have told him that first.

"But-But he can't!" Charlie whined staring at Autumn with wide watery eyes.

"Why not?" Autumn asked confused at why Charlie didn't want to work with Gray.

"Um, because, um, the taskmaster wouldn't like us helping an ex-criminal!" Charlie exclaimed proudly. Then he saw his partner's wide eyes narrow in annoyance

_Oh no! Reverse!_ Charlie's brain screamed at the unfortunate nuzleaf.

"Why should the taskmaster care about our business. I don't care what that stupid swellow wants," Autumn grumbled to herself before storming out of the room.

Gray turned to the nuzleaf and smirked. "Glad to see we reached an agreement," Gray said before he started to go after Autumn.

"Wa-Wait!" Charlie called towards the absol. The Disaster Pokémon turned to the nuzleaf with a glare so cold Charlie's leaves shivered.

"Yes?" Gray asked his voice filled with repressed rage that caused Charlie to lose his courage and start to tremble very noticeably.

Charlie opened his mouth to talk, but found no sound would come out. He tried again and found similar results.

The third time Charlie somehow found his voice again. A weak and feeble version of his voice, but still his voice. "Well, uh, I want to know why you left Autumn," he squeaked.

Gray's gaze softened and something like guilt seemed to cross his face briefly. "Personal reasons," Gray muttered angrily before storming off.

Charlie watched with wide eyes before something forced him to say the words on his mind. "You better not hurt Autumn!" he shouted.

Gray paused for a brief moment before continuing to walk away.

Charlie studied the retreating absol noticing that Gray honestly regretted his decision to leave Autumn. But he was probably just acting, Charlie decided.

Line Break

Gray ran after Autumn with Charlie's voice ringing in his head, but it was so weak he could easily ignore it.

The espeon seemed upset by the mention of the taskmaster, whoever that was. It was sad that her own partner had to bring it up as a way to prevent Gray from joining Team Chance.

"Autumn," Gray called lightly after the Sun Pokémon.

She turned back to him her eyes still slightly angry, but less so at the sight of Gray.

"Yes?" Autumn asked her head tilting slightly.

"Is there anything that will cheer you up?" Gray blurted out. Disbelief crossed Autumn's face before something akin to joy knocked the disbelief away.

"Yes! We can go on our first official mission together!" Autumn cried. Gray flinched, but nodded anyway.

While Gray wasn't found of what exploration teams did, an old habit from his thieving days, he could suffer through one non-disaster related mission for Autumn. Just one.

"I actually already had a job I wanted to do." Autumn admitted.

Autumn seemed to be filled with a burst of energy at her own words and quickly explained. "I heard there was this awful Pokémon who has been sneaking up on Pokémon and robbing them blind!" Autumn exclaimed as her eyes seemed to sparkle.

Gray smiled. He knew that Autumn had just described all the thieving Pokémon around, but if she always kept up that attitude she would never be bored at least.

"Sure, let's go," Gray stated.

"Great. It's near Murky Lake!" Autumn exclaimed preparing to dash off.

Gray moved to follow her, but a grating voice attacked his ears before the pair could leave.

"Wait! I want to come!" Charlie yelled from behind them. While Gray wasn't pleased that the nuzleaf had decided he was coming, the slight disappoint on Autumn's face made him feel slightly better.

"We better get moving then," Gray said. Autumn seemed to regain her energy and dashed on the road to Murky Lake with Gray right behind her.

Charlie through seemed to struggle with keeping up with the two four-legged Pokémon.

Gray ran across the dirt path feeling the warm golden beams of sunlight warmed his fur as he just enjoyed the feel of cold wind rushing past him as he ran.

He easily passed Autumn and started running ahead of her, but Autumn sped up and passed him. This was the start of their unofficial race.

Other Pokémon on the path quickly dodged the pair as they sped past.

Autumn was somehow able to keep up and even pass the more experienced Pokémon the longer they raced, but by the time they got to Murky Lake exhaustion had taken its toll slowing down the smaller Pokémon.

As they skidded to a halt by the entrance Gray had managed to win by the merest half inch.

"I'll. . . win. . . next. . . time!" Autumn exclaimed cheerfully between quick breaths of air.

Gray didn't reply. He was too busy trying to actually breath in between bursts of laughter.

They laid under the sky and watched as steel gray clouds began to cover the sky. When the clouds looked like they were about to cover the brightly shining sun the pair finally heard the soft sounds of feet approaching them.

"Autumn. . . " Gray began before the Pokémon approaching them spoke up.

"Finally! You had no idea how hard it was to catch up with you too." Charlie's voice yelled.

"We should get going." Autumn stated pushing herself off the ground.

"We also have the weather to worry about. It feels like hail," the psychic-type thought out loud.

Gray nodded before following Autumn through a thick group of oaks trees.

Charlie looked around at the shadows around him. he thought he had heard something, but he didn't see anything now.

"Charlie!" Gray shouted from out of sight.

"Coming!" Charlie called back before he followed the rest of his team.

Nearby bushes rustled slightly.

Line Break

The moment the trio arrived on the first floor which was riddled with stiff brown leaves they spotted their first enemy.

It was a caterpie. The bug-type used string shot which everyone, but Charlie managed to avoid.

Gray shook his head as the nuzleaf was wrapped in a sticky web before hy jumped forward and used night slash on the caterpie.

The caterpie didn't even get a chance to see his attacker before he was lying knocked ou among the leaves on the ground.

"Let's go," Gray said as he left to find the staircase.

The moment he walked into the next room a familiar gray staircase was lying in the corner. Another caterpie stood by guarding the path to the next floor its large eyes easily finding the Disaster Pokémon.

The absol let out a small growl which caused the bug-type to flee as fast as it could.

Gray rant to the stair case not even bothering to check if the rest of the team was following him.

As he arrived in the next room he grinned at his luck. Another staircase was exactly four steps away.

As the absol began to make his way to it when a voice came from behind him.

"That wasn't teamwork," Autumn stated coming up from behind him followed by Charlie.

"Sorry," Gray grumbled before continuing to make his way towards the stairs.

"You are part of a team now," Autumn sighed before pushing past Gray to get to the stairs.

"That wasn't teamwork," Gray called back to the espeon.

"I know," Autumn said as she started to make her way to the next floor.

Gray smirked and went to the next floor as well with Charlie at his heels.

"What floor is your criminal on?" Gray asked as they reached the third floor.

"The next floor," Autumn stated happily.

Gray felt confusion take over his heart at her comment.

"The fourth floor is a little too early on in a mystery dungeon for criminals to settle." Gray said speaking from experience. It was easier for exploration teams to stumble upon you the lower you made your home.

"I suppose so," Autumn muttered. Now that she thought about it there was something off with this job.

"We will just have to be prepared," Charlie said from behind Gray and Autumn.

Autumn nodded and slowed down as they approached the stairs.

As they cautiously made their way up the stairs .

As they approached the fourth floor Gray turned to Autumn.

"Who exactly is this Pokémon we're hunting down?" Gray whispered to Autumn as they looked around the first room for signs of danger.

"I'm not sure about their name, but they're a garchomp." Autumn answered Gray as softly as she could.

"A garchomp! Autumn, do you have an escape orb? Why need to leave!" Gray panicked.

"No, what's wrong with it being a garchomp?" Autumn asked giving up on being quiet.

Before Gray could even open his mouth a bright flash of light blinded the trio.

Charlie's high piercing scream filled the air as he started panicking.

Autumn felt something slash at her back as she tried to regain her bearings. She turned around trying to find the Pokémon who slashed her, but the flash of light was still going strong and even opening her eyes for a split second caused her eyes to burn.

The Pokémon attempted to slash her again, but the espeon sensed it approaching and jumped back right into Charlie.

Suddenly just as quickly as the burst of light had appeared it disappeared leaving spots in her vision.

Blinking wildly Autumn pushed herself up trying to figure out what exacly had happened in the time she couldn't see.

"What just happened? Where's Charlie?" Autumn demanded glaring fiercely at Gray who's expression was filled with guilt.

**AN: How did you like this chapter?**

**Answer through a review!**


	4. Secrets Lying in Wait

**AN: Sorry this chapter took so long! Thank you to everyone who reviewed, faved, or followed this story.**

**Disclaimer: I. Don't. Own. Pokémon.**

**Chapter Four: Secrets Lying in Wait**

"I asked where's Charlie!" Autumn screamed. Autumn's gaze flicked around the dungeon looking for any sign of Charlie, but came up with nothing. There wasn't even any signs of a struggle where Charlie used to be.

"I don't know," Gray sighed before turning away from Autumn, and started making his way out of the room.

Autumn glared at the Disaster Pokémon as he just walked out of the room. Autumn held onto a small scrap of hope that Gray would stop, and tell her Charlie's okay. Or that he knows where he is. Or anything!

But Gray just made his way to the door not even stopping to look at Autumn.

When Autumn was forced to abandon the fragile hope she moved into a defensive position, and fired a psybeam at her friend.

Gray just jumped out of the way, then just kept walking without even looking back.

Autumn's fur bristled with rage as she stomped after Gray.

"You know what happened to Charlie! I know you do! The moment I told you we were after a garchomp you demanded we leave! Then Charlie's kidnapped!" Autumn ranted as she continued following the absol.

"Will you just be quiet for two seconds!" Gray hissed, and for the first time since Charlie disappeared he looked straight into Autumn's lavender eyes.

"Charlie should be okay. For now. Well, at least until the garchomp you were after realizes that he's useless." Gray muttered speeding up slightly.

"Charlie isn't useless!" Autumn exclaimed defending her partner.

"I'm sure he isn't," Gray said before increasing his speed again.

"Why are you walking so fast?" Autumn asked trying to keep up.

"I know where Charlie is," Gray answered.

"I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! Wait! How do you know that?" Autumn demanded.

"An idea," Gray declared before finally running off with Autumn trailing behind him.

*_*LINE BREAK*_*

Charlie had awakened from the effects of the sleep seed a half hour ago, but refused to open his eyes or give any sign that might alert the Pokémon that attacked him that he was awake.

During that half hour he had avoided a panic attack, and started thinking of a way to escape.

Charlie was trying to think of what his teammates would do in his situation. Charlie had come to the conclusion that Autumn would assess her surroundings and devise a plan from that, while Gray would most likely just attack in the Pokémon in the room.

Charlie had to dismiss what Autumn would do, because he didn't really want to open his eyes and show that he's awake. What Gray would do also wasn't even remotely possible for the nuzleaf.

Actually the only things Charlie had decided was that he was laying on leaves, and that was all he really knew so far.

Gathering his courage Charlie thought about opening his eyes. But he decided it was too risky to give even the slightest sign he was awake.

Besides Autumn would come save him. Eventually. She had to. Right?

Charlie groaned in frustration. _Oh no_, Charlie thought when he realized that he had made a sound.

The next thing Charlie was aware of was a burst of drowsiness as yet another sleep seed hit him.

_ LINE BREAK _

Autumn looked around as she picked up a slight chill in the air. Her abilities told her that it would begin raining soon, but the sky above was still a clear blue without a single cloud in the sky.

As she returned her attention back to following Gray she wondered why they hadn't run into a single Pokémon since Charlie vanished.

"We're almost there," Gray said as they reached another staircase. Autumn sent Gray a confused look which the absol didn't even bother responding to.

Autumn was nearly positive that this dungeon had sixty-four floors, and Autumn was positive that the staircase in front of them led to the thirtieth floor. That meant that they were still a good thiry-four floors to go. That was _not_ almost there.

As they climbed the staircase the pair ran into the first group of Pokémon they had seen for a while, and most likely the reason the other Pokémon had been scared away.

It was a pack of houndoom.

"They're everywhere," Autumn whispered in awe. It seemed like the houndoom weren't picky about the dungeons they went into. From what Autumn noticed there were houndooms in volcanoes, cold climates, and,now forests

Unfortunately for the pair Autumn's soft whisper had alerted the houndooms' sensitive ears to the new arrivals.

The large group of around twenty houndoom slowly started surrounding the pair while Gray just looked annoyed.

"I don't have time for this," Gray yawned before running through a slight gap in between two houndoom.

Autumn watched in shock and frustration as her companion abandoned her in a group of houndoom.

Two of the houndoom went after Gray, but the rest learned from their previous mistake and filled in any gap the espeon could fit through.

Autumn narrowed her eyes searching for a way past the houndoom. She knew there was no way she could defeat all of them without help, but there had to be some way to escape without getting knocked out.

Her lavender eyes skimmed over the surrounding, but saw no hidden escape route. Before Autumn could even came up with a wisp of some sort of plan a houndoom charged her.

Autumn easily managed to avoid it, but the rest of the houndooms also charged.

Autumn gulped remembering a similar situation to this she went through a couple of months earlier. This plan got her knocked out before, but Autumn was running out of options.

Autumn got ready to attack then pounced onto the nearest houndoom's back. The larger Pokémon shook off the pink Pokémon, but not before a slightly dim houndoom nearby had spotted the espeon, and attacked at the last spot her had seen her.

The slightly dim houndoom had ended charging his own ally. The other houndoom attacked the slightly dim houndoom. And then like ripples in a pond the fights among the houndoom spread creating a big enough distraction for Autumn to slip out unnoticed.

Autumn ran through the trees searching for the ally that abandoned her. Luckily for Autumn she only had to run through a few rooms before she spotted Gray.

The absol was walking around the forest floor examining every part of the floor.

"Gray!" Autumn hissed as softly as her rage would allow her. She didn't want to attract the houndooms attention. With any luck that wouldn't noticed she had left.

The Disaster Pokémon didn't even look towards the espeon. He just kept on examining the floor.

Autumn felt her ears twitch slightly. The Sun Pokémon sent her most vicious and hate-filled glare to the absol, but Gray still didn't react.

"GRAY!" Autumn screamed causing the sounds of fighting in the distance to stop.

Gray looked up slightly, sighed, then looked back to the ground.

"I know you can hear me!" Autumn yelled anger causing her voice to tremble slightly.

"And I know a herd of houndoom are probably running here after they heard you shout like that," Gray declared sounding completely bored. "Or maybe they're running away. You did sound quite angry." Gray continued.

Sounds of approaching footsteps sounded from a couple rooms away.

"Nope. They're coming. Thanks Autumn." Gray groaned.

The absol just continued inspecting the floor, but a bit more rapidly than before.

" If they're coming then maybe we should leave this room then. What are you even doing?" Autumn demanded.

"Looking," Gray answered quickly.

"For what?" Autumn asked as she also began to examine the floor. She hoped what they were looking for was to get worth getting attacked by a group of houndoom.

"A hidden staircase. They're more common than you might think. And if a remember correctly there should be one in this room. I also suspect Charlie is being hidden in a room that a hidden staircase leads to," Gray explained.

The sounds of footsteps came closer.

Autumn desperately scanned the floor for anything that might be hiding a secret staircase, but at this point she was suspecting that something was amiss. How did Gray know so much?

"I don't see anything!" Autumn moaned. The espeon was now convinced that the houndoom were going to be there any moment, and they were just standing there.

"Found it." Autumn heard Gray say from across the room.

Autumn raced across the room trying to reach the staircase before the houndooms came.

Gray had just entered the secret staircase immediately after her discovered it under a pile of leaves once again leaving his panicked ally behind.

Autumn was getting really sick of that.

Before she was even halfway to the staircase she was surrounded by houndooms. Autumn growled, her lavender eyes flashing around the group before a flame bite from behind landed a direct hit on her leg.

Autumn tried to dodge, but the numbers advantage on the houndooms made it nearly impossible for Autumn to dodge, or knock a single houndoom out.

Before Autumn even happened blackness painted over her vision warning her that she had been knocked out.

LINEBREAK

Autumn shivered as a feeling of cold roused her from her deep slumber. She tried to get float back into the world of dream, but the feeling of multiple cold things hitting her caused her to admit defeat to and open her eyes.

The first thing Autumn saw was grass. At first Autumn wondered why she was staring at grass when she should be waking up in her nice cozy bed, but then she remembered everything that happened.

Autumn sat up as rain continued to soak the espeon.

Autumn was rather annoyed at this point. Charlie had disappeared, gray had ditched her twice, and know she had been knocked out by a rabid group of houndoom.

Autumn just sat there as rain drifted down around her wondering if she should just go home to her soft bed, or go after Gray.

In the end Autumn's frustration decided for her. she was going to go back into that dungeon, defeat the houndooms, scream at Gray for leaving her, then scream at Charlie for getting kidnapped.

Auutmn nodded pleased with herself, and marched straight back into the dungeon.

Most of the floors were relatively empty with the emption of a couple caterpies and weedles that Autumn easily defeated with her psybeam.

By the time Autumn got to the thirtieth floor she had defeated fourteen caterpies, and eight weedles.

As Autumn ran into the houndoom, and was once again reminded of their large number she changed the defeats houndooms part of her plan to run away from houndooms.

Leaping past the scattered houndooms she managed to get through the room without being cornered.

Autumn ran around the floor aimlessly trying all the tricks she could think of to get the group off her tail.

After she had changed the number of houndooms chasing her from twenty to two she turned a corner then leapt into a tree.

Autumn saw the two houndooms charge into the room, and just like Autumn suspected just ran out the nearest exit that they apparently thought Autumn had taken.

Autumn didn't move then, but just sat on a tree branch and tried to catch her breath all while being grateful that the houndooms were too busy chasing Autumn to spot a flash of pink in a tree.

After around ten minutes had passed and Autumn had yet to see a single houndoom she leapt out of the tree and onto rain-soaked leaves beneath her.

Now Autumn was faced with her next problem. Where was the secret staircase?

Dungeon layouts changed every time you entered the dungeon. How had Gray managed to know the exact room the hidden staircase was?

There had to be some sort of sign Autumn decided. Autumn thought back trying to remember something about the room that was different from the dozens she had just passed through. Sadly, Autumn had been too busy being angry with Gray to really look at the room. Through even if she hadn't been angry with Gray Autumn most likely wouldn't have noticed. the rooms begin to blur together after awhile.

Autumn looked around the room, but all she saw were trees, brown leaves, green grass and a lot of dirt.

Autumn's eyes widened slightly as she remembered something else about the room. About the floor that she had frantically been examining. The leaves had been a tawny color, not the dull brown color of the leaves surrounding her.

Autumn slowly made her way through the floor hiding from houndooms when she saw even a sign of them approaching. Until she finally reached a room with the strange colored leaves.

Autumn smirked and examined the room brushing some leaves aside every couple steps until in one spot the brushed aside tawny leaves revealed a gray staircase.

Autumn carefully started making her way down, but was frozen in place when she saw Gray calmly talking to the Pokémon she assumed kidnapped Charlie.

**AN: If you want to review, thank you, but if not thank you for reading!**


	5. Nonexistent Plans

**AN: Ummm, this chapter wasn't late the rest were early? Okay, I'm going to take full responsibility. I came down with a case of procrastination that prevented me from working on this story. I'm sorry.**

**Disclaimer: I'm glad to announce that during the three months I was gone I bought *drum roll* yeah, I didn't buy pokemon.**

**Chapter 5: Nonexistent Plans**

Charlie was about to start crying. He had been stuck in the same spot for the hour attempting trying to pretend he was asleep.

It was during this time he heard Gray calmly conversing with a Pokémon Charlie could only assume was his kidnapper. At first the nuzleaf was ecstatic. Charlie even thought for just a split second that maybe Autumn was actually right about the absol. Then he noticed a distinct lack of fighting or even arguing between the two.

In fact Charlie even heard the two laughing.

_I knew it! Gray is evil! _Charlie's brain had cheered before he realized that, even if Gray was the bad guy, he couldn't tell Autumn, because, well, he was pretending to be asleep.

Just as Charlie was trying to pinpoint the exact moment his life had spiraled out of control (he was debating whether it was when he first met the Disaster Pokémon, or if it was when the Disaster Pokémon joined his exploration team) he heard the angry yell of his teammate.

* * *

Later Autumn would say that she stayed perfectly calm and rational when she saw her partner passed out on the ground while her other teammate had a pleasant chat with her partner's kidnapper, and had come up with a fantastic plan before she engaged the situation.

In reality Autumn had just fired a psybeam at Gray then just started winging it afterwards.

The espeon had launched herself at the stunned absol before Gray could even blink in surprise. Sadly, even if Gray didn't react quickly enough, his partner could.

The garchomp held the struggling even far enough away to avoid her claws, but before he could do anything else Autumn fired a psybeam at him.

Autumn landed gently on the ground as the garchomp dropped her, but before she could fire another attack a night slash hit her from behind.

Autumn turned to Gray, and gave him a hate filled glare. Before their fight could continue the sound of gravel being disturbed filled the room. Autumn glanced at the source of the strange sound, and saw the garchomp clutching his stomach as laughter poured out of him.

When his laughter fit finally ended the garchomp turned to Gray. "You found yourself a great girl!" the garchomp laughed before beaming like a proud father.

Gray then turned a shade of red that would put a tomato to shame. "What! No! I-I-She! You're clearly an idiot!" Gray shouted.

"What's going on?" Autumn interrupted looked back from the garchomp to Gray.

"Gray didn't tell you? No wonder you were so angry I'm-" the grachomp started before A growl from Gray interrupted him.

"What? You don't trust her?" the garchomp muttered turning away from Gray.

"That's not it. It's just-Fine tell her." Gray muttered.

"Well, I'm willing to bet you're Autumn. Gray's said so much about you. Just call me Gar, I'm absol's parole officer." the garchomp announced proudly before directing Autumn's attention to a badge around his neck that marked him as a member of the Pokémon Police.

"But-" Autumn began before she was interrupted by Gar.

"I know what you're going to ask. Well, this is all dandy and everything, but why are you a wanted bandit?" Gar began dramatically waving his arms in the air.

"Well, Autumn, I'm doing this special job, and Gray's kind of being my partner through this. Can't say any more through." Gar finished, taking a small bow.

Autumn just stared dumbly at the garchomp thinking through this process.

"Gray?" Autumn asked softly.

"Yeah?" Gray said perking up at the sound of Autumn's voice.

"Why did you join Team Chance?" Autumn asked, pieces of the puzzles were swimming around in her mind all yelling for attention.

"To help with the job of course. I mean was a convenient way to get access to the guild you're apart of." Gar declared before Gray could open his mouth.

"Gray?" Autumn started.

"Autumn, I know this seems bad." Gray stated staring at his teammate and friend.

Autumn whirled towards Gray. "You're an idiot!" the Sunshine Pokémon yelled before storming out with Gray's calculating eyes watching her.

"Autumn, we really do need to talk." Gray sighed before slowly following his upset teammate.

"Well, I really do have some work to get done. Bye Weird Nose Dude," Gar called to Charlie before also exiting.

* * *

_Was-Was I just left behind? _Charlie wondered in shock.

* * *

Autumn ran out from the dungeon, her psychic senses alerting her to Gray's presence following her.

Just then Autumn stopped. She was not going to let him hurt her. Not again. The espeon turned to around, and waited for the Disaster Pokémon to show up.

Autumn was not left waiting long. Gray calmly walked into Autumn's line of sight, the blue scarf she had given him so long ago hanging from his neck.

"Do you want to know what I thought about?" Autumn asked staring up in to the sky. It was going to rain tonight she sensed through she couldn't see a single cloud in the clear sky.

Gray paused, and just stared at the espeon.

"I thought about all the good times we had then all the times you ruined everything." Autumn declared, her lavender eyes searching for something that Autumn knew they would never find as she looked at the ground.

Autumn lifted her head to look at Gray then smiled. "Thank you for the good times, but I think it's time I left."

"Why can't you just listen to me," Gray groaned as this was all a simple disagreement that could be solved with a few words.

Autumn glared into Gray's eyes. They were the same color she remembered. The same red that resembled the color of the roses that blossomed in the Flower Meadow.

"Can't you be more understanding?" Gray muttered.

"Can't you be less of a coward? Face me yourself. Don't leave some notes, or get someone else to talk for you." Autumn taunted.

Gray just smirked lightly in face of Autumn's insults.

Later on Autumn would claim that she thought she saw an ariados, and panicked, but only a small amount of people would believe her.

Gray flinched as the psybeam hit him, but instead of getting angry he just looked at Autumn.

As Autumn stared at the Disaster Pokémon she found that he looked earnest. It was so out of place on his normally bored face that she burst out laughing.

Gray just stared as the espeon's clear laughter danced through the trees. He couldn't help, but be slightly offended, but found himself unable to yell, or even work up a glare.

"You know, Autumn-" Gray began.

"Autumn! Autumn!" Charlie's frantic voice called out as he stumbled into sight.

"Stupid acorn." Gray muttered.

"Charlie! Are you alright?" Autumn asked as she turned to the nuzleaf.

"No! That weird garchomp said my nose was weird, and Gray was friends with him!" Charlie whined as tears began to bubble up in his eyes.

"Well, um . . ." Autumn said unable to think of a good response.

Charlie turned, and saw Gray standing just a couple steps away, and let out a rather girlish squeal.

"Autumn! Why are we still standing here? Gray is bad news! He helped kidnap me!" Charlie cried.

"Why did you kidnap Charlie?" Autumn inquired, ignoring Charlie's frantic cries to leave.

"It was a misunderstanding on Gar's part. He thought that you two were trying to interfere with his mission." Gray commented apathetically like Charlie's traumatic experience meant nothing.

"Is his mission to torment innocent nuzleafs?" Charlie griped.

"No." Gray growled, glaring at the acorn lookalike.

"Well, Charlie and I better get going." Autumn sighed.

As the absol watched the pair walk off, he briefly wondered why he didn't ask Autumn to wait.

* * *

When Charlie left to go to his own home, Autumn realized something.

She was all be herself. As she walked back to her home she thought of Gray, and the more she thought of Gray the angrier she got.

When a vulpix bumped into her, Autumn's temper finally snapped.

"Watch where you're going!" Autumn growled storming past.

Before she was even a few feet away a snobby voice broke its way into her thoughts.

"Excuse me, I do believe you were the one who was not paying attention to where others are." the voice declared sounding bored.

Autumn turned to the vulpix, her eyes shining with disbelief. "I think you were the one at fault here," Autumn said.

"Oh no no." the vulpix yawned.

"I'm sorry, but I'm having a really bad day." Autumn growled.

"Well, so am I!" the vulpix declared.

"A Pokémon that I really care about just seems to lie to me, and my partner got kidnapped!" Autumn shouted.

"I am going to be forced to evolve to take over my clan, and I do not even wish to become evolve yet," the vulpix sniffed.

Autumn just stared at the ground awkwardly. Should she leave, or try to apologize?

"I am sorry. I should not have lost my temper," the vulpix sighed.

"No, it was my bad. I'm Autumn," the espeon said cheerfully.

"Aria," the vulpix said timidly.

"So, where were you headed?" Autumn asked, her curiosity bubbling over.

"A cafe nearby. Brand new, but I heard they have the most delicious gummi smoothies around. If you want I could show you where it is." she answered.

"Sounds great!" Autumn chirped, and followed behind Aria.

* * *

As Aria walked with the energetic espeon, she couldn't help that the endless nonsense coming from Autumn's mouth was comforting.

Maybe it was because Aria didn't have to be concerned about how she sounded, or maybe it was because Autumn's own personality was naturally likable, if not slightly annoying.

When they finally arrived at the cafe Aria was slightly disappointed about how _ordinary_ it seemed, but Autumn seemed to think it was the most wonderful place she had ever been.

The floor was a generic light brown oak that matched the walls. The tables were only a slightly darker shade of the same color.

As they approached the counter Aria barely glanced at the Pokémon working the counter.

She heard Autumn chatter with the Pokémon, but Aria couldn't bring herself to care enough to join the conversation.

"Aria. ARIA!" Autumn shouted in the vulpix's ear.

"What?"" she yelled back.

"What flavor smoothie do you want?" Autumn asked.

"Red gummi," Aria said before delving back into her thoughts.

"That will be one red gummi and one pink gummi." Autumn requested.

When Autumn pulled Aria to a table Autumn wondered over how Autumn was trying so hard to be friendly.

"This is delicious!" Autumn squealed as she tasted her pink gummi smoothie.

Aria rolled her eyes. After seeing this place she doubted it would be anything special.

As Aria drank the red gummi smoothie she was forced to admit it was one of the best smoothies she had ever had.

"I must agree that these drinks are quite delectable," Aria agreed.

Autumn beamed, and resumed slurping down her smoothie.

"Would do you mean you won't pay up!" An unreasonably loud voice shouted.

Aria glanced up from her drink to see an arcanine towering over a weedle. Aria couldn't bring herself to care. The weedle had most likely brought it on himself.

"Hey! Stop it!" Autumn yelled, launching from her seat. Aria glanced at the espeon. Surely, the new Pokémon she had met couldn't be dumb enough to try to fight the arcanine by herself.

Aria was convinced that Autumn's foolishness would fade when she realized how outmatched she was.

But Autumn's foolishness didn't fade.

"I don't want to hurt you, so just back away." the arcanine growled.

"Not until you leave that weedle alone." Autumn growled back.

Aria glanced between the two, she did hope she wouldn't have to stop the fight that was clearly about to break out.

**AN: Thanks for reading! Please review!**


	6. Old Problems

**AN: Okay, this one is a little shorter than the others, but this is the fastest I have ever updated!Two updates in two days! **

**Disclaimer: Please refer to the previous disclaimers. **

**Chapter 6: Old Problems**

Autumn glared up at the massive arcanine, and refused to let any fear show on her face.

Autumn knew her opponent was bigger stronger, and angrier, but that shouldn't stop her from trying. The tiny voice in her head responsible for self-preservation acted up for what felt was the first time in years. It yelled that _yes _it should stop her from trying.

Autumn easily ignored it.

"Just leave this alone, espeon," the arcanine rumbled.

"Sorry, but I just can't," Autumn commented, her lavender eyes shining with determination.

The arcanine just sighed, and fired a flamethrower at the small espeon.

Autumn easily jumped over it, but couldn't suppress a flinch when it scorched the wall behind her.

"No fighting in the shop! Take it outside!" a Pokémon yelled, but the arcanine just pushed it aside and powered up a flame bite.

Autumn threw a psybeam, and was delighted when it hit the arcanine straight on. Then the arcanine had to ruin her happiness, by just shrugging the attack off like it was nothing.

The arcanine lunged at the espeon, and the Sun Pokémon found herself jumping onto the arcanine's back to avoid the attack.

Autumn sunk her claws into the arcanine's back to prevent it from shaking her off. As the arcanine was about to slam Autumn into a nearby wall, a voice rang through the air.

"Stop this childish fight," Aria snapped, her eyes glimmering with annoyance.

"But the weedle-"

"Has already ran out with the rest of the Pokémon during your . . . spat," Aria declared. Autumn jumped off the arcanine's back, and landed lightly on the ground.

The shop was a wreck with tables smashed from where they got in the arcanine's way, and scorch marks littered the ground. And just like Aria declared only Autumn, Aria, and the arcanine were left in the shop.

"Let us depart," Aria stated before walking towards to the door with Autumn close behind her.

"Wait!" the arcaine growled.

Aria turned to the arcaine, her entire being was practically radiating annoyance.

"What?" Aria growled.

The arcanine paused for a brief second. He was frightened by the small vulpix in front of him, but why?

The arcanine didn't like that the Pokémon that had just made his blood run cold was just a simple vulpix!

As the arcaine prepared to attack, Aria used extrasensory. The attack hit the arcaine hard causing the massive Pokémon to wobble on his feet.

Autumn blinked in surprise at the vulpix's powerful attack.

"Autumn, are you leaving still?" Aria sighed before making her way to the door.

"Of course," Autumn exclaimed, and ran after the vulpix.

As they left, the arcaine heard the vulpix say, "I hope you did not like this place as much as you seemed too, because they are never going to let you back in after that disaster."

* * *

Charlie wandered nervously down the road towards the guild, searching for Autumn.

He had checked her house, the flower meadows, and everywhere Autumn may have been.

The nuzleaf paced nervously. He didn't want to be alone when he told the taskmaster of their guild that they had failed the mission they picked up. With Autumn chasing after Gray they hadn't completed any jobs recently, and Charlie didn't want to be alone when the taskmaster lectured their team.

They were supposed to meet the taskmaster in ten minutes, and Autumn was still missing!

Charlie paced up and down the worn road in front of the guild hoping that Autumn would somehow magically appear.

As Charlie heard the sound of a Pokémon coming up the road, he let out a sigh of relief.

"Autumn!" Charlie called, but then paused. Autumn's fur was pink, but this Pokémon seemed to have white fur with a blue scarf around its neck.

_Oh no, _Charlie groaned internally.

Gray marched past Charlie angrily before stopping to look at the nuzleaf.

"Have you seen Autumn?" Gray asked coldly.

"Uh, well, I was looking for her," Charlie muttered rapidly, wanting to get as far away from the Disaster Pokémon as possible.

"Why?" Gray asked, his eyes as sharp as a razor claw.

"Well, the taskmaster wants to see Team Chance, and she is going to yell at me, so I want Autumn to be here too, but she's gone, and I don't know where!" Charlie ranted, looking as if he was about to start screaming.

"I could come," Gray commented sounding somewhat curious.

"What?" Charlie asked, his mind whirling trying to figure out what Gray thought he could gain from this.

"Autumn named me a member of your team. I might as well come along." Gray remarked.

"Why?"

"Do I need a reason?" Gray snapped.

Charlie rapidly shook his head back and forth. _An angry absol is never a good thing_, Charlie decided, _just agree, and he will go away. Eventually._

"Charlie!" the always annoyed voice of his guild's taskmaster snapped.

"Yes!" Charlie yelped.

"What are you doing loitering outside the guild?" the taskmaster asked coldly, raising her wings slightly.

"Well, uh," Charlie scrambled for an answer.

"Let me guess. The espeon didn't show up, and you're too frightened to face me alone. Your team is quite undependable," the swellow commented.

Charlie gulped. He really did blame Autumn for the Shallow Pokémon's complete disgust for their team. Autumn never should have started the fight about money.

"It was really my fault. Autumn was busy, so I volunteered to come. I got turned around," Gray interrupted dispassionately.

The taskmaster's cold glare fell on the absol, but Gray just returned with one of his own.

"Charlie?" the taskmaster snapped.

"Yes?" Charlie squeaked.

"Why is this-this _absol _in front of the guild? his kind always brings disaster, and I wouldn't want to have the guild destroyed _again_!" the taskmaster yelled.

"Technically, I didn't cause it to be destroyed the first time, and he's here because Autumn asked him to join Team Chance," Charlie whimpered.

"Autumn," the swellow sneered.

"Are we going in or not?" Gray growled. This conversation was beginning to annoy him.

"The less of the guild you get near the better," the taskmaster said, her voice coated with disgust.

"Lovely. May we continue this conversation, or are you going to continue to waste my time?" Gray inquired, his voice colder then the snow that fell in winter.

"Fine!' the swellow huffed. "Charlie, and . . . whatever you name is I am concerned about the few amount of jobs Team Chance has been taking, and the even smaller amount of successes."

"Gray," the absol interrupted in the middle of the swellow's lecture.

"What?" the swellow chirped in confusion.

Gray let out a sigh of annoyance. "My name. Gray." Gray asserted.

"Wonderful, Now-" the swellow started.

"Stop." Gray said calmly. Charlie was in shock. Was the absol suicidal? Didn't he know better than to inturupt the taskmaster?

"You can't order an exploration team to take more jobs. I read your guild's rules. All team are given a certain amount of freedom that make your complaint pointless. Goodbye," Gray declared before walking away.

The taskmaster was frozen in sock, and Charlie, who was thinking about all the ways Gray just made his life more difficult, ran off while she was in shock.

* * *

Charlie followed Gray silently. He didn't know why, but he felt the need to thank Gray for helping deal with the guild's taskmaster, and Gray's cold attitude was not making it any easier to thank him.

"Gray?" Charlie asked.

"What?' Gray snapped.

"I wanted to, you know, thank you," Charlie forced out.

"Fine," Gray said.

"Well," Charlie started.

"If you have nothing intelligent to say please refrain from talking," Gray hissed.

Charlie jumped slightly at Gray's scary attitude. maybe he should leave. Charlie knew Gray wouldn't kill him with Autumn around, but there was no grantee without the espeon nearby.

It was then that Charlie spotted Autumn. At least he was safe now. She seemed happy, and chatting with a Pokémon just out of sight.

When the Pokémon Autumn was with came into view Charlie's eyes widened.

The Pokémon was one of the prettiest he had ever seen. All Charlie could do was stare at the vulpix.

As Autumn spotted Gray and Charlie she waved happily. _At least Autumn's presence should make Gray a bit nicer_, Charlie thought.

* * *

Aria watched as Autumn waved to two Pokémon up the hill.

Aria observed that the annoyed looking absol seemed a bit happier when he spotted Autumn, and how the nuzleaf seemed to relax about. Like he had been worried for his safety before he saw the espeon.

_What a strange group of Pokémon, _Aria thought.

**AN: A thank you to all of you that have read this far!**

**Review please!**


	7. New Problems

**Definition of disclaimer: **

** 1. A refusal to accept responsibility.**

** 2. Statement renouncing legal right.**

** 3. Denial of knowledge.**

**Chapter Seven: New Problems**

Autumn watched as one jumpy nuzleaf made his way down the steep hill with an oddly nervous absol.

Autumn beamed at the sight off the pair, all previous frustrations with her friends forgotten.

Aria just rolled her eyes at her new companion's excitement. The vulpix just couldn't help but find the espeon's show of emotions childish. now she had to deal with the perky Pokémon's friends. Aria was annoyed already.

Aria watched as the nuzleaf with the weird old coin jumped in front of her with exasperating (at least to her) emotions swirly in his eyes.

"Umm, hi, uh, I'm Charlie." the nuzleaf forced out, nerves dancing in his stomach.

Aria just sighed, not paying any attention to the nuzleaf.

Autumn could see the pain the vulpix's reaction caused Charlie, so like any good teammate she jumped in.

"Charlie this is Aria, and Aria the acorn is Charlie," Autumn chirped happily, sounding more like a starly than a espeon.

"I don't get an introduction?" Gray asked, seeming more amused than annoyed. Autumn blinked. How could she have forgotten about Gray?

"Aria that is Gray," Autumn declared. "Happy now?"

"Sure, Autumn I really need to speak with you-" Gray started before Charlie interrupted him.

"Aria is a really pretty name-" Charlie began to say before another interruption took place.

"I need to go. Bye Autumn," Aria sighed before turning, and (quickly) leaving.

"Wait! She didn't even tell me how to get in contact with her!" Autumn yelped before running after the vulpix.

Charlie watched Autumn get farther and farther away then looked at the frustrated absol besides him.

"Wait for me!" Charlie cried before fleeing.

"Did they all just leave me?" Gray sputtered.

* * *

"Aria! Aria! AAAARRRRRRIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAA!" Autumn shouted, looking at the crossroads before her. Both led in the directions of identical forests, so there was no hope trying to narrow down Aria's home by appearance alone, and she didn't know why she thought hollering would work.

"Autumn!" a certain acorn's voice yelled from behind her.

"Oh! Hi Charlie," Autumn greeted, flashing a bright smile.

The nuzleaf ran in front of her, clearly out of breath."How could you just leave me?" Charlie moaned.

"Sorry, I wanted to see if I could catch up to Aria," Autumn declared not sounding apologetic at all.

"Well, in case you did-" Charlie started whining.

"Be quiet!" Autumn hissed. Her lavender eyes whipped back and forth, as she tried to scout the area.

"What?" Charlie gasped, hurt by Autumn's abruptness.

"I sensed-" Autumn started before a whirl of light brown charged towards her.

Autumn jumped up before using firing a pysbeam in the direction of her attacker.

The Pokémon dodged then conjured a sandstorm, obscuring Autumn's and Charlie's eyesight.

Autumn sensed detected the foe attempting to sneak up behind her, so she swirled around, and fired another pysbeam.

Autumn felt the attack hit the Pokémon, but she couldn't tell how bad the Pokémon had been hit.

As Autumn's senses picked up a trembling in the ground, she realized her attacker was using earthquake.

She quickly jumped in the air to avoid being on the ground during the main art of the attack.

Sadly, Charlie who had not been forewarned of the attack fainted the moment it hit him.

Autumn sighed as she lightly landed on the hard rocks below her. The sandstorm was whirled around stinging Autumn's eyes, and obscuring how accurate her psychic senses were, but she still managed to run to her collapsed teammate.

Autumn stood by Charlie's side determined to prevent her fallen teammate from any further damage.

She couldn't keep her eyes open any longer, because of the sand flying into them, and the sand had messed with the air currents too much for her to get an accurate location on their attacker.

Autumn struggled to keep an eye on the land around her, but the lack of sight was determined to be her downfall in this fight.

Autumn gasped as a sand tomb swirled around her, trapping the espeon in place. The sandstorm was amplified a 100s times over compared to the storm outside the tomb.

Autumn struggled to find her attacker in order to throw another pysbeam, but she soon found herself struggling to stay awake.

When the sand tomb finally cease, Autumn fell to the ground just barely managing to stay standing.

The Pokémon, noticing Autumn's weakness, quickly threw a gyro ball towards the Sun Pokémon.

Autumn tried to jump up, and dodge it, but she was fast enough. Autumn watched as black spots invaded her vision, blocking out the sandstorm.

* * *

Gray stomped angrily back into Gar's place.

He had been trying to find to Autumn the entire day, but just when he finally found her, she found it fit to run off after some random vulpix she had just met.

Gray let out a huff of air. Somehow he thought meeting Autumn after all these years would be different, but the Disaster Pokémon had managed to find a way to mess it all up.

Well, maybe he was exaggerating a bit; she had invited him into her exploration team.

That thought was swiftly dismissed in the wave of irritation currently going through the absol's head.

"Gar!" Gray snapped. The faster he got back to working on his current job, the faster he could forget about Autumn.

It had worked for three years, so it had to work for just one more day. Right?

"What is it?" Gar yawned, looking up from the desk he had been napping on.

"Why aren't you working?" Gray growled. Gar just laughed at Gray's angry expression.

"You should really be calmer. This is your last case before you're free to go." Gar chuckled.

"Which is why I want it to be over soon." Gray snarled. "Did you find any more leads?"

"Just what we already guessed. That the Pokémon is someone high up in your girlfriend's guild." Gar yawned, causing Gray to twitch in annoyance.

"Autumn is not my girlfriend." Gray said, trying not to attack Gar.

"Same difference." Gar commented tiredly.

"How? Never mind!" Gray growled.

"Okay! Now that you are done distracting me. It's time to go." Gar declared.

"Where?" Gray sighed.

"To see your girlfriend." Gar declared happily, jumping to his feet with one arm in the air.

"She's not my girlfriend!" Gray yelled then closed his eyes trying to block out the annoying Pokémon in front of him. "Why are we going to see Autumn?'

"Because Autumn's been in that guild a part of that guild for a while now. Surely she knows the people running it, and since you're such good friends with her she will be more likely to answer honestly about what she has noticed." Gar declared as if impressed with his own idea.

"Why not?" Gar muttered, diverting his face. Maybe he would finally get a chance to talk to her in private.

* * *

As an angry absol in a blue scarf and a energetic garchomp walk down the rough road, the garchomp decides to ask a slightly important question.

"So, where is your girlfriend?" Gar asked.

"She's not my girlfriend! And I don't know. Maybe at the guild." Gray moaned.

After a long walk filled with far too much pointless chatter from Gar the pair finally arrived at the guild.

Before the pair could even get close to the doors a rather angry looking swellow appeared before them.

"What YOU during here?" the guild's taskmaster sneered.

Gray opened his mouth, but before a word could get out Gar interuptted.

"Have you seen an espeon named Autumn around here?" Gar asked politly.

"No! Now leave!" The swellow growled before disappearing back inside the guild.

"That wasn't strange at all," Gar deadpanned before turning back to Gray. "Any more ideas?"

After searching Autumn's house, Charlie's house, and a cafe that immediately kicked them out when they mentioned Autumn's name the pair was left with no more ideas.

"She's your friend! Shouldn't you know where she is?" Gar whined, tired of searching.

"Just because we're friends doesn't mean I know her whereabouts!" Gray shouted at the garchomp.

After a moment of thought Gray remembered the Pokémon Autumn had chased after."She went after a vulpix named Aria."

"Aria. Aria. Sounds familiar. Oh! She filed a complaint against a Pokémon she claimed broke into her home! She lived at Rainbow Tower. Let's go!" Gar exclaimed.

Gray just sighed. With his luck she wouldn't be there.

* * *

"She's not here." Aria said.

_Great_, thought Gray.

"Do you know where she might be?" Gar asked hopefully. His great idea was turning into a failure, and he didn't like it.

"No." Aria sighed.

"Did she come by?" Gar tried again.

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Now leave."

Gar groaned lightly. It was taking _forever_ just to track down Autumn!

"Well, I'm sorry to have troubled you." Gar sighed then turned to leave.

"Wait! Are you an officer?" a voice shouted from below the trio's range of sight. They all looked down to spot a small caterpie with tears in his eyes staring up at Gar's badge.

"Yes," Gray growled.

"I think I just witnessed a kidnapping!"

Gray froze. It couldn't be. . .

"It was an espeon, and a Pokémon with a weird nose!"


	8. No Teamwork

**Disclaimer: I AM THE DISCLAMOR SPIRIT! AND I AM DECLARING THAT THIS OWNER DOESN'T OWN POKEMON! MWHAHAHAHAHA!**

**Chapter 8: No Teamwork**

Gray growled in fury, and pounced at the unfortunate caterpie.

The caterpie let out a high-pitched squeak before scrambling backwards, his eyes wide with fright as he stared at the rabid absol.

Aria swiftly jumped in front of the unlucky caterpie giving it enough time to flee in face of the absol's wrath.

"Calm down!" Gar snapped, yanking on Gray's scarf.

Gray froze as he felt the fabric loosen and began to drift to the stone floor. The sight of the blue scarf crumpled up on the cold ground awoke a memory. The memory flashed through his head like a streak of lightening. Autumn had once declared that the scarf was a sign of things changing, but was it always for the better?

The sight of the scarf that once reminded him that he could be better caused a burning rage to erupt inside his heart.

Gray glanced at Gar who was starting to look a bit calmer then Gray sprinted away.

"Wait! Think about this! You can't just run off!" Gar yelled, but Gray was already too far away to hear Gar's voice.

"Well, that's wonderful." Aria sighed, picking up the scarf, and throwing it into her brown satchel. She would have to give it back later. _What a bother_, she thought.

"Eh. It's kind of pointless to chase after him now. Who knows. Maybe blind rage will help him find Autumn." Gar supposed, sounding doubtful.

"Do you even have any ideas about how to find Autumn and Charlie?" Aria asked.

"No. I don't even know why they were kidnapped! Too bad Gray scared off that caterpie. We probably could have got more information out of him," Gar groaned as he started to walk away.

"Do you need help?" Aria inquired.

"Sorry. You're nice and everything, but I don't think you can help very much."

"I know a Pokémon that could help you, but never mind now." Aria growled.

"Hey! I'm sorry! So, who's this Pokémon you know?" Gar asked.

* * *

Gray ran along the dirt path until he spotted the distinct form of the guild right in front of him.

The absol raced to the doors, and attempted to force them open, but they were locked up tight.

Gray growled in annoyance. He knew something was wrong here. The taskmaster had all, but physically removed them yesterday then Autumn was kidnapped? Gray began to power up his night slash so he could force the door open.

The taskmaster had apparently sensed Gray's less than good attempt, and opened up the oak doors.

The swellow looked like so would fall over any moment. She looked like she hadn't slept for days, and even her dark feathers seemed lighter than normal.

"What do you want?" she snapped when she spotted Gray, but the absol observed she seemed almost relieved to see him.

"Where's Autumn?" Gray growled, his red eyes practically burning with anger.

"I don't know," the taskmaster said, not even bothering to hide her lie.

"I am not an idiot." Gray replied coldly, his eyes scanning the area behind the swellow.

"Listen! Let it go! Everything will be fine in a few days," the taskmaster declared.

Gray let out a low growl before he began powering up pyscho cut.

"Do you really want to fight right now?" the taskmaster snapped, annoyance blazing in her eyes.

"I just want to know where Autumn is," Gray replied.

The Swallow Pokémon smirked."I'm impressed with your dedication. Come in."

Gray smirked before marching through the guild's oak doors.

* * *

"Is this really going to work?" Gar hesitantly asked, surveying the area where Aria's . . . friend said Autumn and Charlie were kidnapped.

"He's the best tracker around. he found out where they were taken. Isn't that enough for you?" Aria said for the fourth time. Her patience was beginning to wear away more and more every minute she spent with Gar.

The poochyena coughed lightly to get the pair's attention. They had been agreeing for an awfully long time.

"Um, do you have anything of theirs? It just has to have their scent on it," the poochyena requested quietly.

Gar paused."Um . . ."

"Wait! You don't have anything of theirs?" Aria criticized.

"Hey! I've only known them a couple days. It's not like we're best friends!" Gar protested.

"Then how is he going to track them!" Aria yelled.

"Um, well, I think, they were kidnapped around here right?" the poochyena squeaked.

"According to you." Aria growled, turning her anger towards the Bite Pokémon.

"And there was a fight, right?" the poochyena asked.

"I assume that the sand everywhere came from a fight where one Pokémon used sand based moves." Aria sighed, trying to figure out why the poochyena was asking so many pointless questions.

"So, does that weird coin over there belong to either of your friends?" the poochyena questioned.

Gar and Aria glanced at the area the Bite Pokémon pointed out, and saw a glint of gold next to a pile of sand.

Gar marched over, and inspected the old coin. It was old, worthless, and he was positive that he had seen Weird-Nose Dude wearing it.

"Yep! This belongs to Weird-Nose Dude." Gar declared before throwing it towards the poochyena.

"Okay! Looks like we can get started!" the poochyena declared happily.

The poochyena carefully sniffed the coin and the cord attached to it before briefly sniffing the air. Then he was off.

"What! He could have at least warned us!" Gar yelled, chasing after the speedy Pokémon.

* * *

"Is he done yet?" Gar whined, struggling for air.

"I don't know! I'm not a psychic type," the vulpix stated.

The poochyena hadn't paused a single time in their run. Not when Gar fell over on his face, or when Aria threatened not to pay him if he didn't slow down.

"Is that the guild?" Gar gasped.

"What guild?" Aria asked, taking deep breaths of air.

"The one Autumn and Gray are a part of. Gray and I have been investigating it recently." Gar declared.

Aria was about to ask why when the poochyena (finally) skidded to a stop an inch in front of the guild's door.

"The scent continues on inside. Do you want me to continue, or am I done?" the poochyena asked, not sounding even slightly tired

"No, you can leave." Gar said bitterly.

"Here is your three reviver seeds," Aria said, throwing them towards the poochyena. The Bite Pokémon caught them with a smile plastered on his face.

"Thanks! Feel free to ask me for help again!" the poochyena offered before running off.

"You gave him THREE reviver seeds to lead us to a door!" Gar sputtered.

"You didn't think he would work for free, right?" Aria yawned.

"Still, that's a bit much." Gar mumbled.

"Do you want to find Autumn or not?" Aria snapped before pushing on the doors.

They were locked.

"It's locked," Gar observed.

"I noticed," Aria growled.

"Well, then I guess we'll have to knock," Gar marched forward, and gently tapped on the door.

"No one would hear that," Aria complained as the door creaked open.

Gar flashed her a wide smile before turning to address the Pokémon who opened the door.

"It's about time you got here," Gray smirked.

"Glad to see you aren't running around everywhere!" Gar laughed.

"I discovered a couple things why you were off playing with a poochyena," Gray commented.

"I suppose you know everything that is going on now," Aria muttered.

"Actually, yes." Gray replied coldly.

"You owe me three reviver seeds!" Aria snapped.

Gray just smirked.

"If you know everything then why don't you tell us about the situation with Autumn and Charlie," Gar interrupted before Aria could attack Gray.

"Charlie was just a mistake. He was never meant to be kidnapped. And Autumn, well, it would be simpler if the taskmaster of the guild explained that to you." Gray sighed.

"Hello," the swellow greeted, looking exasperated.

* * *

**AN: Do to the kindness of my heart I'm going to answer PokeExp247's questions!**

**Charlie is frightened by everything simply, because every single time he has to be brave someone always steps into save him *cough* Autumn *cough*. So, he never get a chance to do things on his head, and when he does he gets Autumn to help him.**

**Autumn is still mad at Gray, because he disappeared for three years. Sure, her anger is fading, but it's still there.**

**And Gray doesn't smile, because he isn't really the emotional type. He doesn't display his emotions easily, but he smirks! That's like smiling!**

**By the way the next chapter will be the last one (maybe). Thanks for reading!**


	9. The Rescue

**Chapter 9: The Rescue**

"Wonderful. Anyone want to explain?" Aria complained, wondering why she even bothered to come.

"I can!" Gar joyfully announced.

"Really?" Aria whined. Was she the only one out of the loop?

"I doubt you do," Gray grumbled, ignoring Aria.

Gar shot Gray a glare before "proving" he knew exactly what was going on.

"The taskmaster, whose name I do not know, has confesses to her crimes!" Gar loudly declared causing Gray to laugh softly.

"Shut up!" the taskmaster growled, her eyes glancing down the narrow wooden hallway that led further into the guild.

"I was right through-" Gar whispered fiercely.

"No."

"What?" Gar asked, turning to Gray who was looking extremely smug.

Before Gray could answer Aria interrupted their conversation with a question of her own. "What crime did the taskmaster confess too? Did she kidnap Autumn?" Aria asked, a scowl frozen onto her face.

"Yes!" Gar exclaimed proudly.

"No." Gray replied coldly.

"What?" Gar and Aria asked at the same time.

"She still could have confessed to the crime." Gar muttered.

"What crime?" Aria shouted, earning herself a glare from the swellow.

"It's about a case we had." Gray snapped, glaring at Aria as well.

"About what?" Aria snarled.

"Nothing!" Gray barked.

"Of course. Cases about nothing make perfect sense!" Aria said indignantly.

Gar turned to Aria, and decided that the vulpix had earned an explanation. "It's about missing artifacts. There were some extremely rare artifacts said to be round this area. As you know whenever a rare or valuable artifacts is found it's required that the guild that the explorers were a part of to fill in a report describing the object, and where it was found. When doing inventory of guilds around here it was discovered that several precious items have gone missing. While we were investigating we discovered that this guild only had items stolen from some of the explorers. No items that actually belonged to this guild itself were stolen. It was believed it must be someone who was not only a member, but was actively involved in the day-to-day business of the guild. It was my own genius self who decided that the taskmaster was the most likely suspect! We were trying to investigate quietly." Gar explained.

"Is everyone happy now? Great." Gray sighed. "Let's go save Autumn now."

"And Charlie," Gar added.

"Wait! So, if the taskmaster didn't kidnap Autumn, who did?" Aria asked, glancing at Gar.

"I don't know," Gar complained.

"My boss, the guildmaster. I found out about it, and I was planning to report it. Apparently, he thought since Autumn and I were always arguing we were friends, so he must of kidnapped her along with Charlie. As far as I know they will be kept hidden somewhere in the guild until the guildmaster manages to successfully leave the country." The Swallow Pokémon clarified.

"Where?" Gray scowled.

"I don't know. Maybe it's in the basement?" The taskmaster suggested.

"Why keep her in the guild?" Gar asked.

"Because the absol that just joined the team will have a hard time finding and rescuing her while she's here. This is her guild. Most Pokémon wouldn't be suspicious of this place. I don't think he expected Gray to be investigating him." The swellow explained.

* * *

Autumn felt the fuzziness in her mind begin to fade, as she started to wake up. The air around her felt surprisingly heavy, and a malicious aura clung to her surroundings.

Autumn's eyelids felt like iron weights as she tried to force her eyes open. Her head felt like a fog was in it, but she knew something wrong.

She forced her eyes open, and blinked away the haze sticking to her eyes. She slowly examined the room to try to get a better grip on her situation.

The room looked oddly familiar with the dark wooden floorboards, and the cherry wood walls. It looked like the storage rooms the guild had in the basement, Autumn realized. Autumn's tired mind wondered if she had fallen asleep inside the guild. She thought she was going to find Aria, but did something happen?

Autumn tried to strand, but her muscles felt frozen. A strange panic filled her as she tried frantically tried to stand up.

As her heart pounded in her chest, a soft whimper forced Autumn to stop panicking. As she calmed down, she remembered the battle she had against the mysterious Pokémon. He must have kidnapped her after she was knocked out. A stun seed would account for the fact she couldn't move, Autumn realized.

_Charlie! _Autumn thought.

Autumn struggled escape the effects of the stun seed, but her body resisted every motion she made. It probably was a miracle she had even managed to open her eyes.

Autumn felt a burst of satisfaction as broke through the effects of the stun seed.

She beamed, and scanned the area for Charlie while keeping an eye out for whoever kidnapped them.

A flash of movement flew by the corner of her left eye. As the espeon whirled around she sensed the seed headed for her before she saw it. Autumn dived out of the way of the seed as fast as she could.

Autumn fired a psybeam, and grinned when it hit the target. As she focused on her attacker, her lavender eyes widened as she spotted the sandslash.

"Guildmaster Chay!" Autumn faltered.

The sandslash smiled widely. "Autumn. I apologize for the brutality of my actions, but I was forced to take drastic measures."

"W-what?" Autumn stammered. Chay took advantage of Autumn's shock to throw another stun seed at her. Autumn struggled to dodge, but she couldn't make it on time. Autumn tried to fire another psybeam, but her muscles were frozen.

"Don't worry this is only temporary. Just until I'm prepared to leave." The guildmaster commented before leaving through the door on the far side of the room.

Autumn tried to break through the stun seed, but the effects were at full strength. The only way to break to break through its hold was to wait for time to weaken its effects, or another Pokémon to attack her.

Autumn glared at the wall as she attempted to move her head. She needed to check for Charlie. He was probably freaking out, but she still couldn't move her head.

Autumn glared even harder at the wall. She thought Gray would approve.

* * *

"Well, now that all of you have all the information we could possibly want we can go after Autumn now," Gray growled, quickly running off. He felt uncomfortable with how long they had waited. The faster they saved Autumn the better.

"Always a ray of sunshine!" Gar chirped before running after Gray.

"Wait! The quildmaster is probably down there! What are you doing?" the taskmaster cautioned.

"Thanks for the warning," Aria said before she followed the garchomp.

The taskmaster blinked a couple times before finally deciding to join the group. She did follow a bit slower through. There was no need to be reckless like the others.

* * *

As Gray ran through the guild, he swiftly made his way to the basement.

"Gray!" Aria called after him.

"Be quiet!" Gray hissed.

Aria quietly seethed at Gray's attitude. It wasn't like him running around in a panic was absolutely silent.

Gray ignored Aria's obvious frustration, and darted down the old staircase. As he reached the bottom, he saw that it split into two paths.

"I'll take the right path. You two take the left." Gray declared.

"Gray!" Gar furiously whispered, but Gray was already gone.

* * *

Gray recklessly ran down the hallway trying to find the hidden door. He heard a light whimper that sounded very Charlie-ish. If Charlie was nearby Autumn should be too. Gray grinned, and observed the wall where he had heard the whimper come from. Upon close inspection he found the outline of a door.

Before he could open the door a gyro ball smashed into him.

"I should have known the swellow couldn't keep a secret. Oh well!" Gray heard a voice say.

Gray swirled around, and used perish song.

"Miss!" Gray heard the same voice yell.

The absol felt anger begin to boil in his heart. He quickly pushed the spot where the door was, and rushed into the space that opened up.

Gray scanned the room immediately, and caught sight of Charlie cowering in a corner while Autumn was frozen on the far side of the room. As soon as the espeon caught a glimpse of the Disaster Pokémon out of the corner of her eyes, he could see her violet eyes lit up.

Gray rushed over to Autumn to help the stunned Sun Pokémon, but before he could get to her a sand tomb trapped him.

Gray glared at the area where the move was fired from, and he spotted a figure of the sandslash through the sand rushing around him.

Charlie could see that Gray was trapped in the sand tomb. Gray, who had rushed all this way to save Autumn and Charlie. Charlie couldn't watch Gray get hurt. Not while the absol was trying to help. The nuzleaf gathered all his courage, stopped cowering, and rushed forward to use faint attack.

The guildmaster took the attack with a small amount of damage, but Charlie did manage to get a decent hit in.

Chay laughed at Charlie's sudden courage before hitting Charlie with a gyro ball.

Charlie's eyes widened with fear of another attack as he attempted to hide behind Gray who was watching the events unfold from inside the sand tomb.

The guildmaster laughed lightly then used gyro ball to blast Charlie again. The nuzleaf fell to the ground, and started considering pretending to be knocked out.

Another gyro ball hit him proving that just laying there wasn't convincing the guildmaster that he was knocked out.

Charlie got up, and rushed at the guildmaster to use faint attack..

Unluckily for a certain garchomp, he had just rushed in between Charlie and the guildmaster after hearing what sounded like a battle in the room.

Luckily, Charlie's faint attack wasn't that powerful.

"Ow!" Gar yelped.

"I'm so sorry!" Charlie yelled flustered.

"It's fine," Aria said, as she calmly walked into the room.

"It really isn't," Gar groaned.

The sand tomb released Gray causing him to fall gracelessly to the ground. He darted over to the guildmaster, and used night slash.

The guildmaster effortlessly dodged Gray's attack, and once again used gyro ball.

It hit Gray full force throwing the absol back slightly.

Gray growled then used psycho cut. Gray's attack barely even managed to even graze the guildmaster.

Taking advantage of Chay's distraction, Aria used fire blast, and Gray used sand attack. The attacks hit the guildmaster dead center.

As the guildmaster observed his opponents, and realized the one to four (soon to be five Pokémon as soon as Autumn was able to move again) were not the best odds.

Guildmaster Chay quickly used earthquake to distract the group of Pokémon.

As the earthquake broke Autumn's stun, the earthquake shook the room allowing him a moment to thro a flash orb on the ground.

Before the guildmaster could successfully flee, Charlie used explode while Chay ran past.

The flash faded revealing a knocked out nuzleaf, and the guildmaster looking like he was about to collapse.

Chay glowered at the group of Pokémon in front of him, and prepares to defend himself.

Just then the taskmaster ran into the room, and used wing attack on the guildmaster, which Autumn followed up with a psybeam.

The guildmaster teetered on his feet for a couple seconds before falling over.

"Looks like Charlie wasn't useless," Aria commented, staring at Charlie's knocked out form.

"He always is!" Autumn declared happily, causing both Gray and Aria to scoff.

"Autumn!" Gray cried, running over to the Sun Pokémon.

The absol pulled the espeon into a hug while he beamed with joy.

"He does care about his girlfriend!" Gar laughed.

Gray was about to contradict Gar's words until he saw Autumn's delighted expression. Gray just smiled, and laughed loudly.

Gar shook his head at the sight before requesting the taskmaster's assistance in helping him drag the guildmaster away while he was still unconscious, and show him where the stolen items were.

"Sorry," Gray muttered softly after Gar left.

"For what?" Autumn asked, her lavender eyes opened wide.

"Leaving," Gray said guiltily.

"Oh. Yeah, I'm still really angry about that, " Autumn chirped, walking away from Gray.

"But maybe not as much as before. You are no longer a wanted criminal, so I could understand it a little. Never do it again through," Autumn added.

"Autumn, I l-" Gray started before a groan of pain from Charlie interrupted him. Gray narrowed his eyes slightly, and he was also surprised to see Autumn looking slightly annoyed as well.

"Glad to see you're okay!" Autumn announced brightly.

"Did I knock him out?" Charlie asked, looking around.

"No." Gray said harshly, but seeing Charlie's face fill with depression he added. "But you were a big help."

Charlie's eyes filled with pride as you stuck his unusually long nose in the air.

"I really saved the day!" Charlie exclaimed.

Aria rolled her eyes. "Charlie, want to get some gummi shakes?" Aria asked.

"S-sure!" Charlie yelped.

Gray stared at Aria perplexed about why Aria would ask Charlie out. The vulpix just shrugged while smiling a bit. Aria left with Charlie in tow leaving Autumn and Gray alone.

"Want to go get some gummi shakes? Maybe talk about us?" Gray asked hesitantly.

"No to the gummi shakes. I'm pretty sure I'm banned from the café." Autumn laughed.

"I'm sure there is one café you haven't gotten banned from yet." Gray declared, smiling.

The couple then exited the dark room while Autumn laughing happily.

* * *

**AN: I'm sorry for how long this took to get out.**

**This is the last chapter! Thank you so much for reading until the end!**


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